The hardest part of doing business online is keeping the customers flowing in. It’s not easy, and sometimes downright frightening. Traffic, list building, articles, and SEO are just some of the methods you can use. With Web 2.0, through in social media, audio, video, and you’ve got a basket of ‘time consuming’ tactics that could have you wasting away, while you try to provide content, so what do you do?

The easy question is, you find some way to draw in a loyal following and keep them on your website. But there’s way more involved than that – for example: How Do You Do It?  You’ve got to keep everyone happy, and, provide some type of content, or access that will keep people coming back – one solution is a Memberhip Website (or Continuity in the marketing world).

Continuity – it’s been around for ages

Ever since ma bell (AT&T) started selling phone service, and big power companies offered up AC power to your home, people have been buying continual service at a monthly rate. The concept is not new. The methods for pulling it off in the Internet Marketing World of 2009 are a jumbled mess of theories, concepts and profit-hungry classes that claim to show you the way.

I’ve not seen the best one yet, but I’ve tried quite a few. Right now the word is still out on Continuity Blueprint which I just ordered a few days ago. I’m betting it will provide some answers, but I’m not sure yet…

So, what’s a person to do? As usual, I’ll find my way, but I’ll do it in a way that works best for me, and my customers. Provides a simple/easy to follow/’user friendly’ signup method, and gives my websites an advantage over others – ease of use, and less maintenance work for me.

Signup for my list (enter your name/email in the orange box on the top right of this page), as I’m going to be covering the details of all of this over the next several months. I’ll let you know what I found, what worked for me, and why, and what to do about it in your own marketing. It’s sure to be a wild ride, but I’ll get to the bottom of finding the best courses/classes and software to use to get Membership Websites and Continuity running.

Post your comments below – and let’s see where this takes us…

1.) Website Magazine – a completely free magazine that covers all of the bases.  When I first found out about this I thought it was too good to be true.  A free sample came to my mailbox, and now that I’ve read the last 15-20 issues, I have to say, this is one of my top favorites, and best of all, it’s free.   Get your free copy at this address: http://www.websitemagazine.com/scripts/sub/subscribe.aspx
Check it out at this address: http://www.websitemagazine.com

2.) The Net Effect – owned by Stomper Net, this great magazine just started a few months ago. I can tell from the content that this is going to be a great magazine. Everything is covered, SEO in great detail, linking, customer service and support, analytics and analysis, blogging, web audio and video. The magazine averages about 50 pages/month, the articles are detailed and actionable (they focus on you taking action) and it even includes a ‘How to turn this issue into a Goldmine!’ page at the end of each issue with 15-20 things you can follow up on from that issue. Great stuff. Unfortunately right now they are no longer accepting subscriptions, but you owe it to yourself to sign up for the waiting list, here’s the website to do it at: http://stse2.com/. The magazine goes for around $40/month and an additional $20/month for an accompanying DVD.

3.) Dot Com Profits – Russel Brunson’s magazine is a joy to read and also full of valuable content, just not quite as much as The Net Effect, but almost. The number of articles are fewer, but longer, and a DVD/video is included with each issue. I think this one runs $39.97, more info at: http://membershipsite.dotcomsecrets.com/

That wraps up my list for now, stay tuned and I’ll post others that I find useful – or post a comment and let me know of some that you enjoy…