To answer this question, you really need to understand the primary purpose of your membership site. What do you want the membership program to accomplish for you? Is it a list-building tool or a revenue model?

Obviously, if it is primarily a revenue model, then a paid membership program is going to help you accomplish your goal a bit faster. Membership fees create a steady, fairly predictable income. If you run a program with a monthly fee of $25 and you have an average of 100 members each month, then you know you’ll have an income of at least $2,500 every month or $30,000 each year.

So, you say, what benefits does a free membership offer? Let me list them for you:

• They are a great way to build a list of fans.
• They can reduce the number of “tire kickers” you have on your list, because they do need to jump through a few more hoops.
• They help create rapport between the business owner and the members.
• They can build a sense of community, depending on what model you use.
• They can establish credibility and, possibly, even celebrity status.
• They can make you money.

What? you say. It’s a free program, how does it make me money? Well, you can promote your products and services through the site. People would get angry if you did this with a paid site!

If this still doesn’t work for you, you could try developing a low-fee membership program, say $5 or less a month. This way you get the benefit of having at least some residual income, and you can actually increase the quality of your members!