Subscription based websites
A subscription based website is one where people pay to become members. Once membership is paid for the website then opens up pages/content that are unavailable to non members.
Subscription based websites have many reasons why they want people to pay for websites. Here we will outline the main reasons so you can see if a subscription based website is what you need.
Specialized and valuable content.
If you are a specialist in a certain area where the information you have is of value to a certain demographic then you could benefit from having website that opens up new content after somebody pays the subscription fee. This can be very profitable as it can vastly streamline your workflow. Providing information automatically can save hours of time with clients and in turn free up your time to concentrate on the more profitable aspects of your business.
Member Discounts
Often a subscription membership is offered to visitors in return for discounts on services and products.
On one hand a company may lose initial profits through providing discounts however the subscription fees often mean you create a loyal source of income not just from your subscriptions but from repeat custom. A buyer will be more inclined to use your services if they already trusted you enough to buy a subscription from you.
Bsuiness Communities
Subscription based websites are often used for communities where the website has a community something to offer not normally found for free. The obvious example of this are dating websites where people pay a membership in the hope they might meet that new special someone.
There are many other uses for subscription based websites. The above examples/descriptions are merely to show you the more common ways subscription and membership based websites are used.
Of course you can also have a membership based website where membership is free however the only real use of this is for full blown social networking sites - we cover those website here.