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Choosing the First Subject
publication date: Jul 18, 2006
The most important decision that you will make when deciding to launch a membership website is what subject area you will cover.
 This will determine both the pleasure that you get from running your business and the money that you’ll make. So after reading this chapter, spend time thinking through what you are really interested in and what will keep your passion bubbling for years to come.The 12 Guidelines of Subject Selection
There are twelve guidelines to selecting an ideal topic. Not all of them will necessarily apply to your topic, but most of them should:
Guideline #1 – Be passionate about your subject!
Pick a topic that you enjoy so much that you would be happy to write about it even if you weren’t getting paid to do so. You’ll spend most of your waking hours thinking about it and speaking with people who share your interest.
Guideline #2 – Make sure your market is big enough.
Assume you need to be able to attract at least 1,000 paying members to make significant revenue from your online publication. Does the subject capture a big enough potential market ... or if the target market is small, can you capture a large enough part of it?
Guideline #3 – Know your audience.
Do you know who your potential members are and how to reach them in a cost effective way? This is one of the most important points to research when choosing a subject. Sometimes it is easy to know. For example, if you are setting up an independent Arsenal FC Supports site, you know where 40,000 prospects are going to be every Saturday afternoon. If, however, your site is about ‘Arranging the Perfect Stag Party’, it is harder to find and reach your target audience.
Guideline #4 – Unique and exclusive content.
Can you create unique and exclusive content that would be difficult or impossible for your members to get elsewhere? Where will you get content from? Could your sources be cut off in the future?
Guideline #5 – Credibility amongst members.
Your members will be paying to get access to expertise and experience. You or your writers must be able demonstrate that you are (or have access to) a credible and informed source of relevant knowledge.
Guideline #6 – Sufficient material for regular updates.
Subscription websites rely on regularly updated content to keep members interested and loyal. Does your subject have sufficient fresh news and content to be updated at least weekly and preferably daily?
Guideline #7 – Member interaction.
One of the greatest benefits of creating an online publication is that members are able to interact with the editor and each other. Does your subject encourage this, or would members be in competition with each other and therefore be reluctant to talk to one another? The more interaction, the stronger the sense of community, resulting in greater loyalty.
Guideline #8 – No natural end date to subscription.
Try to avoid a subject that has a natural end date for membership. For example, a website about how to arrange a wedding would keep members for the six to twelve months before the wedding and then they will leave. This type of subject means you will continually have to chase new members as old ones leave.
Guideline #9 – Potential members are internet users.
Make sure that your target audience have access to a computer and the internet! This may sound obvious, but there are still large sections of society and the world that don’t have internet access.
Also, make sure your content type matches your audience’s speed of internet access. Don’t serve lots of video content to people on slow dial-up connections!
Guideline #10 – Reduce pain or increase gain.
Your content should have a measurable benefit or value to members. They should be able to justify the money they spend on a subscription by the looking at the savings they will make (time, money, effort, etc) or by the gains/pleasure they will receive. You should continually remind them of the pain or gain that you deliver. For example, a website about wine tasting will increase the pleasure they get from drinking wine and reduce the money they waste on buying poor quality wine.
Guideline #11 – Take a look at the competition.
Study the online and offline competition to your proposed website subject. What prices do they charge? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can you compete with them? Try not to compete head-on with an industry leader. Find an angle that they are not covering or you could cover better. Do you believe you can compete?
Guideline #12 – Niche is best!
Aspiring editors often assume that the bigger the potential market, the better the subject and the more members they will attract.
This has been proven wrong over and over again for subscription websites.
Evidence shows that the more specialist sites are, the more successful they are. It is better to create a site about “How to buy a house in Spain” than “How to buy a house in Europe”. In fact, it maybe better to narrow it even further to “How to Buy a House in Costa Blanca”.
It is better to create a site about “Running a Successful Food Franchise in London” than “How to Run a Franchise”.
Think niche!
There are literally millions of different topics that can be chosen that would not have a sufficiently large national market, but if you count the worldwide audience, they could become very successful websites. One belly dancing site has 8,000 subscribers paying $59 a year. That’s an income of $472,000 (£260,000).
Just to get your thought process moving, here are some example sites:
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