The Subscription Business Model is not a new idea. One of the very first subscription based businesses is the telephone, soon followed by news media (newspapers), milk, encyclopedias, magazine, television and entertainment and so-on. This business model is not new, but what is new is its accessibility and low barrier to entry.
Subscription Based Businesses Powered by WordPress
So, you want to achieve the holy grail of business, the recurring revenue business model achieved by subscribers. Trinity Web Media Web Development Team has some ideas to get you started. Being a WordPress Website Company, there is no surprise these are all powered by WordPress.
1. Education & Training: The most common of subscription sites powered by WordPress are educational based. Using premium content or restricted content functionality, customers can sign up for lesson based learning lessons based on their interests and your area(s) of expertise.
Recommended Tools:
• WordPress
• Gravity Forms
• Payment Gateway Plugin
• WordPress Membership Plugin
2. Box Subscription: Working with physical products can be trickier because you are merging an inline world with physical goods. For that reason, this business is more difficult to launch, but there is also less competition in this space. Think about subscriptions with very limited product choice like BarkBox or Beer of the Month Club. These businesses negotiate items in bulk and send to subscribers with no product choices.
Recommended Tools:
• WordPress
• Gravity Forms
• WooCommerce
• Payment Gateway Plugin
• WordPress Membership Plugin
3. Think Tank Sites: The think tank site as I refer to them are online networking sites where subscribers and users can exchange information and knowledge with one another. They are paying for access to the other subscribers you brought to your site. Your site is the grand connector of people in this instance.
Recommended Tools:
• WordPress
• Gravity Forms
• WordPress Forum Plugin
• Payment Gateway Plugin
• WordPress Membership Plugin
4. Premium Content: If you can curate or produce enough high-quality content you can gain subscribers by offering the content for a monthly or annual cost. Similar to the Education & Training model, but this content is used more for entertainment. In the skateboarding world ETN is a great example. ETN contracts events or athletes for access to their exclusive content and pays them for the exclusivity. Then in turn, subscribers pay for access to the ETN content library.
Think about Netflix, Hulu or other streaming content distribution channels.
Recommended Tools:
• WordPress
• Gravity Forms
• Payment Gateway Plugin
• WordPress Membership Plugin
• High-powered reliable servers
We hope we piqued your interest in the subscription based businesses using WordPress. WordPress is a great platform to begin this journey and to bring it to scale, then based on your success the technology can be re-evaluated and updated accordingly. Trinity Web Media WordPress Development is happy to assist you with any of the above models and feel free to contact us with any questions.
While I’ve known Greg for years from our time together in the marketing scene, I’ve only recently had the chance to work with Trinity Web Media on a client project. Not only was the team professional and their work spot on, they were amazingly quick to respond and required very little hand-holding along the way. I chalk that up to their past experience and a deep understanding of best-in-class services.
I have hired Greg and the Trinity team multiple times for work on my own websites, and have also hired them to work on behalf of multiple clients. He is simply a pleasure to work with, in every respect. Smart but without the giant ego of some developers, Trinity Web Media works with his clients to achieve their vision in the best way possible — with careful attention to their interests, and thoughtful recommendations based on his expertise. • Susan Baier – Founding Marketing Strategist – Audience Audit