Question:  I’m working on my first membership idea. I plan to test and track everything I do and would really like a benchmark to aim for so I know when I’m doing well…what are your typical conversion rates (salespage and free to paid member upgrades)? Also, what are the best strategies to retain members?

First of all let me say how happy I am you plan to test and track everything – Not doing that is where too many marketers and site owners go wrong… 

Unfortunately it’s hard to say what a typical conversion rate is (I don’t know the market you’re in and that can make a sizeable difference for a start)

But let’s look at a typical funnel in the “Internet Marketing” niche – Where you’d be asking a visitor to opt-in to a free site and then upgrade to a paid membership… Read the rest of this entry