#1 A Niche. Marketing your website to the world is just a little too broad. However, marketing it to too small of a crowd will mean that you won’t be very profitable. Your niche must be targeted and have a demand for your information. A tricky line to balance? Not too tricky, let your passions or interests be your guide. Chances are if you’re interested in it, others will be too.
#2 Multiple Streams of Revenue. Subscriptions are only the beginning. There are numerous ways to generate profits from your membership site. From advertising, to information products, to affiliate programs, the sky is the limit. Take a look at how your competition does it. Take a look at how major players like Monster.com and YouTube make money. Uses what you learn and reach for the sky.
#3 A successful subscription model. Free membership or weekly membership? Monthly subscription or annual. No decision is more difficult for the membership site owner than this. You want to make sure that you price yourself fairly and continue to make profits. Decide first what kind of site you want to offer and the ideal subscription model will follow.
#4 A solid brand. Brand recognition means traffic and it means you can charge tons of money for advertising space. Brand recognition also means more leverage in the market.
#5 Traffic. If no one knows about your site how will you make money? You won’t. That is why traffic generation techniques are vital. That doesn’t mean that you want to employ every single traffic generating technique available. Some will be significantly more powerful for you than others. For example, article marketing may be the ticket to thousands of subscriptions and PPC campaigns may result in a net loss. It all depends on your market. Research techniques, try them out, find the strategies that are successful for you.