Innovative membership site ideas to inspire your next venture in 2023

Creating a membership website is a great way to enjoy a steady income stream.

Whether you’re just starting to plan your first membership website or are a seasoned pro looking to boost profits, this post will provide valuable insights and real-life examples to inspire your next steps.

In this post, we’ll define a membership website and show why you should have a paid membership plan backed up with some facts and figures.

After that, we’ll talk about the types of membership websites you can build and will share some real-life examples.

Next, we’ll give away some tips, like the platform to choose to make a membership website and some membership site ideas to promote and monetize your website.

Before we wrap up, we’ll also share a few bonus tips regarding design and security considerations.

What is a membership website?

Creating a membership website allows you to offer exclusive content or features to a select group of users.

Like an exclusive club, your users must pay a membership fee to gain access.

Once they become paid members, they can access a variety of your content, such as articles, videos, forums, and online courses not available to non-members.

A membership website can benefit both you and your paid subscribers.

You are offering exclusive access in exchange for a paid membership. Your visitors are paying for that exclusivity and access to whatever you’re offering.

Why should you start a paid membership site? (With facts and figures)

The subscription economy is rapidly expanding. People are more receptive than ever to paying for exclusivity. Whether that’s access to content, to a member forum or something else.

Here are a few reasons why creating a paid membership website could be a good idea:

The subscription economy has seen significant growth of 435% in the past nine years and is projected to reach a market size of $1.5 trillion by 2025 (Sell Courses Online).

It’s insane, isn’t it?

You can enjoy the following perks by having a paid membership website:

• Build brand authority by starting a membership site in a specific niche or subject. With this brand authority, you’ll gain trust not just from visitors’ but from search engines too.
• Build a loyal community by creating exclusive content and offering additional perks to paying members.
• Enjoy a steady income stream on a part-time or full-time basis. In fact, membership websites that make money are a very sustainable business model.

Starting a paid membership site can be a great way to turn your passion into a profitable venture.

What platform to use for your membership website?

If you want to turn your membership site idea into reality, you’ll find a myriad of tools to build with.

Our pick is SureMembers, an affordable and intuitive WordPress plugin you can use to create a membership website.

You can create access groups, lock content, drip feed content, sell your services and accept payments via SureCart, and even automate with SureTriggers.

What should a membership site include?

No matter how familiar you are with a membership website’s anatomy, consider incorporating the following facets into yours:

• A user registration and login system: If you want to offer a paid membership plan or course, it is imperative that you consider creating a registration and login option for your audience.
• Unique and exclusive content: You can’t sell your membership unless you create unique and valuable content. So, this is the first proposition you need to take care of.
• Restricted content: You can either restrict your entire website or parts of it. You can do so very easily with tools like SureMembers.
• Pricing plan page: If visitors see that your content is restricted, you can redirect them to your pricing plan page and hopefully convert them to members.
• Checkout page with payment options: When visitors choose a plan to buy, you can redirect them to the checkout page and enable them to pay using at least one payment method. Membership websites that make money tend to offer multiple payment options.
• A membership dashboard: Allow users to view their profile information, such as what plan they have access to or their achievements, like certifications or course progression.
• Access groups: Access groups allow you to assign a member’s role to users. You can do this automatically if you use the right automation software.
• Membership cancellation option: There should be a way for paid members to cancel their membership anytime they want.
• Live chat or customer service option: A live chat can be a great way to deliver great customer satisfaction.

There’s a lot to building membership websites that make money. But, use the right tools and this guide and you’ll see it isn’t as difficult as you might think!

30 Membership website ideas

If you plan to build your membership website, we recommend turning your existing knowledge and expertise into a unique selling proposition.

We’ve handpicked some popular membership websites ideas to help you get started:

Fitness and nutrition membership sites

Fitness and nutrition membership sites can be a great option in a sense that it has a large market. That’s because everyone loves to stay fit and healthy. And more audience means more business.

Unfortunately, not everyone can afford a quality fitness and nutrition trainer. This is where you can offer value by offering a significantly lower pricing tag than an in-person fitness trainer does.

On a fitness and nutrition membership site, you can also sell services and physical items like protein supplements, weight loss products and gym equipment.

Consider the following niches for your fitness and nutrition membership business:

• Personalized meal plans or diets
• Exercise routines
• Yoga
• Calisthenics
• Weight lifting
• Cardio / Aerobics

Take inspiration from a real-life fitness membership site – Fitness19

We like Fitness19 as they have an amazing fitness landing page with a powerful background image, navigation bar and prominent buttons for all their membership plans buttons.

Online coaching membership sites

Just like a fitness and nutrition website, online coaching can be membership websites that make money due to their wide reach and low overheads.

By leveraging the power of the internet, these websites can access a consumer base that is potentially global in scope.

With coaching membership sites, you can also offer services at a fraction of the cost required for traditional methods.

Since they are subscription based, these sites can create recurring revenue streams from members who continuously purchase access.

You can consider the following topics for your coaching membership site:

• Science and technology
• Mathematics
• Engineering projects
• Business management
• Finance
• Accounting

Whatever topic you choose, the more experience and proficiency you have, the more successful it can be.

Take inspiration from a real-life coaching membership site – WOW FIT

We’ve picked WOW FIT for this example, as they have a beautiful landing page with a trial version for membership plans.

The site also shares testimonials, enrolled member counters and ratings from Trustpilot to help build authority.

There’s also a section that focuses on the differences between their membership plan vs. traditional in-person training plan to help handle objections.

Serial fiction membership site

If you’re a writer, publisher or bookseller, you can create a serial fiction membership site to foster a more collaborative and engaging environment for readers.

Readers can not just interact with each other but also can interact with you.

This interaction can translate into an overall improvement in your literature as you will get valuable feedback from your community. If you sell or promote books, you can use their feedback to help make business decisions.

Take inspiration from a real-life serial fiction membership site – BETH BALL BOOKS

We have picked Beth Ball Books as it has a nice landing page and some good ideas. Subscribe for exclusive access to new chapters as they are written and an opportunity to influence the story.

The landing page teases with beautiful cover images to entice you to explore further. Additionally, the author also sells her book from her own membership website.

Life skills training membership sites

Life is full of lessons. And guess what? You can share your life lessons with your audience by creating a life skills training membership site. It’s one of many profitable membership site ideas that can help others as well as turn a profit.

By allowing visitors to become paid members, you can teach them the essential aptitudes a human being should have to support their personal and professional growth.

Unlike a costly one-to-one teaching approach, a life skills training membership site can deliver essential life skills using a digital platform without breaking the bank.

Take inspiration from a life skills training membership site – Mark Manson

Mark Manson is an influencer who teaches life skills through his membership website. He is the NY Times bestselling author of the inspirational books “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Everything Is F*cked”.

Along with selling courses, he also sells his books through his membership website, writes articles and showcases the newsletter that he sends via email.

Creative community membership sites

If you create a community membership site for yourself, it can be a pretty lucrative endeavor.

Why? Well, it brings a number of advantages, like the ability for individuals to share their interests and thoughts on one platform.

You can enjoy a plethora of user-generated content, so you don’t have to think much about creating your own.

You can also cater to members with exclusive access to premium content, creating a sense of exclusivity and thus increasing the value of the membership.

Take inspiration from a creative community membership site – CIS

CIS or Council of International Schools is a creative community membership website.

One striking feature of their website is including a dedicated section to give instructions of how to be a member. The website also includes a member directory you could use on your own website.

News and journalism membership sites

Creating a news and journalism membership website can be incredibly profitable but also hard work.

The news media industry is saturated with many competitors and you need to work tirelessly to identify stories. But with the right strategy and tactics in hand, you can do great.

Keep in mind that maintaining transparency with proper sources is the secret key to gaining readers’ trust.

By offering exclusive news, you can incentivize your readers to join your platform and ensure their continued support over time.

It’s one of the most profitable membership websites ideas, but also one of the toughest to do well.

Take inspiration from a news and journalism membership sites – The New York Times

The New York Times is a famous membership news site that doesn’t just offer breaking news.

It provides access to original investigations and in-depth coverage of both national and international events.

You could do worse than using the New York Times as one of the examples of membership site ideas!

Classified membership sites

Creating a classified membership site allows members to access exclusive content and offers.

With multiple subscription tiers, you can offer different levels of content, products and services to members at different price points.

For example, you can limit the number of messages your users can send and see inside your membership community.

Take inspiration from a real-life classified membership site – Hostfully

Hostfully creates a subscription membership website where property owners can use HomeAway, Airbnb, TripAdvisor and Booking.com to collect and manage their rental listings in one place.

Networking and job preparation membership sites

Creating a networking and job preparation site is one of our subscription website ideas to make money even if you don’t have a skill in a particular area.

Not only do you get the satisfaction of helping people land their dream job, but it can also earn a commission for job listings.

Since you’re selling access to your services as part of a subscription model, you’ll be able to generate recurring revenue over time – something one-off sales can’t provide.

Take inspiration from a real-life networking and job preparation membership sites – Linkedin

Linkedin is a famous job posting and networking site that also offers job preparation courses under its learning domain.

It offers a premium plan with features like being able to send messages to other premium members and access to premium courses.

In fact, it ships with a whole directory of companies, professionals, job posts and all the features you can imagine and take inspiration from.

Arts and humanities (music, blogging, vlogging) membership sites

Arts and humanities membership sites can be quite rewarding. If you already have artistic traits, congratulations you’ve found your niche!

You can build your own membership website, sell your content and make money in the process.

Offering resources such as tutorials, access to experts, or one-on-one coaching could help give your site an edge over competitors.

Take inspiration from a real life art membership site – Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy

Ken Tamplin is an eminent American vocal coach and singer famous for his wide vocal range and versatile singing styles.

He has composed a number of great works of music and runs his own membership website. He publishes his work and teaches singing to premium members.

Marketing, business training or consulting membership sites

If you are an entrepreneur, you can offer training or consultation services. Depending on your experience, you could offer everything from marketing or business development to coding.

You can offer your own skills or outsource services from other third-party experts and tailor them to the needs of your audience.

With more and more people buying online courses than ever before, there’s no better time to get started.

Take inspiration from a marketing and business training membership site – HubSpot

HubSpot is a leading software development company specializing in developing business and marketing software.

The website provides free quality resources for improving skills for marketing, support, and other business areas.

They also provide one-to-one consulting or support services for a fee.

Podcast membership sites

Podcasts have become an increasingly popular way for people to consume content and makes for an excellent membership site idea.

No matter where they are, people can just plug in their headphones or wear their AirPods and can start listening to podcasts.

Listeners join your podcast membership site in exchange for exclusive content such as bonus episodes or premium features like early access to new material.

Take inspiration from a real-life podcast membership site – Sleep Wave

Karissa is the founder of the podcast membership website Sleep Wave. She has filled her website with both free and paid content.

Her content helps restless people to sleep faster with sleep meditation and bedtime stories.

She has made her podcasts available even on other channels like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and on Amazon Music.

Programming and web development membership sites

Web development and coding is unquestionably in-demand. If you’re a developer, you can consider creating a membership website to help fill that demand.

The key is to provide exceptional value that keeps members coming back for more. This is another of our subscription website ideas that will take effort but will repay that with profit.

You can use an LMS (Learning Management System) like TutorLMS and LearnDash to create courses and gamify them.

After you create your coding membership site, you need to focus on marketing so that potential customers know what value they will get by joining.

Take inspiration from a real-life coding membership site – CodeGym

CodyGym has three membership plans including free, premium and premium pro. If you want to create your first coding membership website, you can take inspiration from them.

Want to create your own online course website? This guide shows you how to create an online course website.

Recipe and cooking membership sites

Are you a professional chef, cook or foodie? If so, you could create your own recipe and cooking membership site.

Though it may sound intimidating at first, it can be a very lucrative venture for you with the right amount of dedication and research.

There’s an army of people who are interested in paying a membership website to access awesome recipe secrets.

You can also consider selling culinary-related products on your website as well when you get a good amount of traffic.

Take inspiration from a real-life recipe and cuisine membership site – Yummly

We have selected Yummly as it is a nicely built membership website for recipe and cooking.

This website has plenty of ideas you use to create your food or recipe website.

Entertainment or fandom membership sites

If you’re a die-hard fan or are someone who knows a bit more about your favorite star than the average fan, take it to the next level by creating a fandom membership website.

Many fans are dying to know about the personal and professional life of celebrities or famous people. So, why not give them some?

If done correctly, creating a fandom membership can be an excellent opportunity for you to make extra money while sharing a passion.

Take inspiration from a real-life fandom website – Amy Adams Fan

Amy Adams Fan is a good example of a fan website that regularly gives updates about the actress.

Although they did not monetize for some exclusive content using membership plans, you can take inspiration from it to monetize yours.

DIY membership sites

You could help your audience with online classes or workshops in areas such as woodworking, gardening, and electrical and mechanical projects. It’s another of our ideas for membership sites that helps others while helping yourself.

Consider creating some unique and exclusive projects or recreating the existing popular projects in a better way so that your members appreciate your efforts.

On a DIY membership website, people can share their respective ways of creating projects so everyone can help each other.

Take inspiration from a real-life DIY membership website – Make.co

Make.co publishes a wide range of DIY projects on their website with premium memberships. Other than their regular membership plan, they do have a corporate membership plan as well.

Plus, they have a dedicated menu in their navigation bar for the member directory. If you are considering building a DIY membership website, Make.co can be a great inspiration.

Stock photos, icons and fonts membership sites

If you’re a graphic designer or photographer you can consider creating a membership website to share your creations.

You can make your stock photos, icons or font libraries available on your website and give access to members in exchange for a subscription fee.

Take inspiration from a real-life stock photos, icons and fonts membership site – Freepik

Freepik is an eminent photo membership website where you can have access to both free and premium photos.

From this site, you can get enough ideas and motivation to make your first stock photo, icons and fonts membership website.

Themes and template membership websites.

You can also create templates for platforms like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal and host them on your membership website.

You can allow visitors to download the premium version of your products in return for a subscription or provide themes as a service rather than a product.

You can create membership plans on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly basis. You will need to provide customer support for the same period though.

Take inspiration from a real-life themes and templates membership website – Astra

With Astra, you’ll get a myriad of both free and premium WordPress templates. You can use the templates to create any website you can imagine.

Premium plans are paid annually. In return, you access all updates, all premium themes and priority support and are part of an exclusive family of WordPress enthusiasts.

Content production service membership sites

Content is king for any business. This provides the opportunity to create unique content for client websites.

You can offer lucrative content marketing services to clients based on a membership plan or access to unique recurring content in return for a monthly fee.

Our appetite for fresh content is huge and if you can deliver consistent quality, you could make quite a profit with this type of subscription.

Take inspiration from a real-life content production service membership site – Neil Patel Digital

Neil Patel Digital is a real-life example of someone who provides training, consultancy, SEO and content related assistance through a subscription site.

Digital art and design membership sites

Suppose you are a digital artist or designer. In that case, you can run your own membership site where you can create classes, write tutorials or offer video tutorials to share your creativity with the world.

Whatever your skill, there’s a market out there for it!

Take inspiration from a real-life digital art and design membership sites – Skillshare

On Skillshare, sellers can upload and sell courses or virtual classes. Students have to buy premium membership to access them.

You can build your own website where you can upload virtual classes on digital art and design and make money by selling memberships.

Test preparation and study help membership sites

Test preparation and study help membership sites can be both interesting and profitable. If you like to solve student problems, you can create virtual classes and courses.

Try with some exclusive supplementary resources so that you can help the students do well in their exams.

One more profitable membership site idea that helps others at the same time!

Take inspiration from real-life test preparation and study help membership sites – Chegg

Chegg is a very popular website where students can buy memberships and can get instant solutions to academic problems. They can also get help from virtual tutors for their queries.

If you like the idea of creating a test preparation and study help membership website, you could follow Chegg’s example.

Homeschool membership sites

Homeschool membership sites are becoming really popular these days. If you love to teach privately, now is the time to get the ball rolling.

Just like the test preparation and study help site, you can provide one-to-one tutoring sessions or provide pre-recorded classes for your students.

Take inspiration from a real-life homeschool membership site – K12

K12 is a great example of a homeschool membership site you can take inspiration from. Their website is filled with success stories and student resources that help build authority.

K12 have properly documented popular career paths along with school programs and curriculums. There are a lot of ideas here you could use for your membership site.

Financial training membership sites

The global economy (be it macro or micro) is dependent on finance. Finance training ranges from personal finance, business finance or any other financial topic.

The need for finance training has been there for a long time and is gaining popularity even now.

People from various backgrounds, such as entrepreneurs to investors, doctors and lawyers, everyone is on the lookout for finance training to help them get more from their money.

Take inspiration from a real-life finance training membership site – CFI

CFI is a great finance training website that has an extensive array of certification programs such as:

• Financial Modeling and Valuation.
• Commercial Banking and Credit.
• Capital Markets and Securities.
• Business Intelligence and Data.
• Financial Planning and Wealth Management.

If you plan to build your financial membership website, this is how you can take your own expertise and turn it into something that can make money.

Software training membership sites

This is an interesting niche for membership websites as it does not require any technical know-how like programming knowledge skills, mathematical skills, or engineering.

The only thing you need to do is to learn how software works, review the functionality and demonstrate its use cases in the form of videos. That’s it.

You can consider creating training videos on popular software tools, including:

• Video editing software and screen recorder tools.
• Graphics design software.
• SEO tools
• Business automation tools like ERP
• Online AI photo editing tools

Take inspiration from a real-life finance training membership site – Linus Tech Tips

Linus Tech Tips reviews and trains people for different kinds of hardware and software. It’s a very popular website with highly regarded resources.

Hobby membership sites

If you are passionate about something, turn your hobby into something valuable by selling knowledge or content via a membership website.

For instance, if you love gardening, make content on it and showcase them on your site. Lock the valuable and exclusive content away, so people buy membership.

Hobby membership websites that make money include:

• Gardening.
• Writing.
• Martial arts / Kickboxing.
• Table tennis.
• Guitar.

Take inspiration from a real-life hobby membership site – Guitar Tricks

Guitar Tricks is a great online platform for learning guitar. If you are great at playing guitar, you can create your hobby membership site like this and make money.

OTT or over-the-top streaming membership sites

You can build your OTT or over-the-top streaming membership site if you are a producer. You guessed it right – just like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney Plus.

These OTT (over-the-top) streaming services are surging in popularity nowadays. If you are interested, it’s never too late to kickstart yours.

Yes there is a lot of work involved and you’ll need to source content, but streaming is everywhere and won’t be going anywhere soon.

Take inspiration from a real-life hobby membership site – Netflix

You can create your entertainment content and upload it to your website in exchange for membership or subscription. Don’t forget to take motivation from sites like Netflix, just on a smaller scale.

Photography and videography membership sites

If you’re a photographer or videographer, you can sell your work or training from your membership site.

But it would be a cherry on top if you could make some photography and videography tutorials in virtual classes or courses and make them available to premium members.

You can charge monthly, yearly, or one-time fees to access exclusive content.

Take inspiration from a real-life photography and videography membership site – Outdoor Photographer

Outdoor Photographer offers professional photography tips and arranges photo contests among community members.

You can take motivation from their membership program if this is something you would like to do for yourself.

Language learning membership sites

English is not the first language for most countries but it’s a widely used language for business. That means there’s an ever-increasing demand for learning spoken English.

If you’re bilingual with a good standard in two or more languages, you can share tips and courses on languages.

Take inspiration from a real-life language learning membership site – English with Lucy

English with Lucy is a membership website where Lucy shares interesting thoughts on learning English.

She sells some premium content through her membership plans while offering some content for free to encourage engagement.

If you speak multiple languages to a high standard, this is one of the best membership site ideas in this list!

Travel and adventure membership sites

If you’re an avid traveler, you can create content on travel and adventure membership sites. Travel blogging is becoming increasingly popular among netizens and this is a growing niche.

Most of us would like to travel more. If you don’t have the time to travel, subscribing to a travel website could be the next best thing.

Take inspiration from real-life travel and adventure membership site – Travel Babbo

Eric Stoen is the founder of Travel Babbo, a travel website. He shares how one can travel with their kids at any age.

Self-development and self care membership sites

If self-improvement and self care is your thing, you could develop content on philosophy and motivation and share it with your members.

Many motivational speakers share their own life struggles together with the struggles behind other successful people.

If you have the training and experience, you could provide mental therapy to your members about being more optimistic, energetic and determined against all odds.

Take inspiration from real-life self-development and self-care membership site – Betterhelp

Betterhelp is a site that provides mental support to paid members. If helping others is your calling, this is a great example to use.

How can you promote your membership website?

Here’re some interesting facts from Sell Courses Online about getting new members.

If you have already created your membership website, you need to promote it so you can get enough exposure.

You could have the best membership site ideas in the world, but if nobody knows you exist…

These strategies can help:

• Create engaging content for your website: First, you need to have good quality content in place. How can you sell memberships if you can’t produce unique, exclusive, engaging, and valuable content?
• Email marketing: Email is one of the most effective ways to stay connected with your audience. You can send offers, news, and updates on your services.
• Spread the word on social media: Share your website on social media and invite your friends and family to register. Then leverage social media marketing to spread the word further.
• SEO strategy: SEO or Search Engine Optimization involves both on page and off page strategies. You’ll need to optimize your website content with proper keyword strategies so people can find you on SERPs. Performing off-page SEO, like answering on the question and answer sites, can get you a lot of organic traffic.
• Social media marketing: Create separate pages on different social channels where your audience is. Interact with others, answer questions and portray yourself as an authority in your niche..
• Influencer marketing: Tie up with a relevant influencer and ask them to promote your membership website to get qualified leads. In return, you can pay the influencer or promote him on your own social media accounts.
• Running paid ad campaigns: To get even better exposure, try running paid ads on different platforms like Facebook ads, Google, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin ads by targeting the relevant demographics.
• Cross-platform promotion: Don’t just rely on your website! For instance, create a YouTube channel, upload some free and effective content there, and drive traffic to your website.

These are some basic strategies you can use to promote your membership website.

How can you monetize your membership website?

You can monetize your membership website in the following ways:

• Subscription-based revenue: Charge a fee on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or half-yearly, or yearly basis.
• Paid content: Let your subscribers buy a single course with a one-time fee.
• Display advertising: Show display ads on your webpage to earn extra.
• Sponsored content: Publish guest posts or sponsored content on your website.
• Affiliate marketing: Make money from promoting products via affiliate programs.
• Consulting or coaching: Offer one-to-one coaching or consulting in exchange for payment.
• Product sales: Sell products like courses, ebooks, photos, videos and music.

Bonus tips

• While running your membership website, take some security measures so that you and your user data remain safe.
• A good website design is one of the most important factors in retaining visitors’ interest. Make sure you have chosen the right template.
• If you’re selling your services in European countries, make sure your membership website is GDPR compliant.

Membership website FAQs

Final words

Turning your membership site ideas into a viable business can be a great way to monetize your knowledge and make some income.

The subscription economy is rapidly expanding and is projected to reach a market size of $1.5 trillion by 2025, making it a profitable business model.

So, it’s a great time to start a subscription business right now!

We hope this article will help you give enough ideas to create your first membership website. If you really liked our article, don’t forget to subscribe to your newsletter.

Finally, feel free to share your thoughts on membership website ideas in the comments section below.