Choosing your Membership Site Web Shopping Cart

What do you want to consider when choosing a membership site eCommerce solution?

The first thing you want to consider is your long term goal with setting up a membership site.  The ecommerce shopping cart solution depends on your long term planning.

Do not have crazy dreams of making millions with your membership site here.  If you are setting up your first membership site, you are going to take a while to make money and it does take a lot of work the first time.  If you are going to be making this a big business push, then you will want to consider an affiliate program for your membership site.

Affiliate programs are a bit funny.  Here is why.  Many people may sign up for your affiliate program, but very few will actually produce sales for you.  The biggest reason is that they need to take action, and few people will take the action needed to develop an affiliate sale.  You will have to manage your affiliates just like you manage your membership website.  You need to interact with them and keep them motivated.

I like paypal because of the ease of use and low startup.  But this is where you have a decision to make.  The PayPal Affiliate program does not exist.   You have to buy 3rd party tools to manage an affiliate program with paypal, and at that point it seems better to go with the leader in online shoppping carts, 1ShoppingCart.

Just a warning:  This runs $99 per month if you want the affiliate tools.  That is why I said you had better be sure you want to take the business side seriously.  If you are just dabbling with membership websites as a business model, then do not invest in a professional shopping cart with affiliates.  It takes too long to get to break even.

Another option is ClickBank.  ClickBank does offer reoccurring membership fees and includes affiliate sales, but I have avoided that option because it just seems messy and full of unprofessional products.  That is my personal opinion and you should definitely check out Clickbank before you make a decision as it may be a good in-between option.