8 Membership Site Examples For Coaches

Looking to scale your coaching business?

Rather than coach clients individually, coach dozens (or hundreds) with a membership site. A membership site is a great way to offer your expertise at scale to a larger group of clients - but then “blank page syndrome” sets in.

How will you structure your membership site? What will you include? While the possibilities may be endless, they’re also overwhelming.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to structure your membership site and provide examples you can copy (I mean, get inspiration from).

Table of Contents

What is a Membership Site?

What Platforms Can I Use to Build a Membership Site?

What Makes a Membership Site Stand Out?

8 Membership Site Examples to Copy And Learn From

How to Price Your Membership Site

Build Your Membership Site with This Free Checklist

What is a Membership Site?

A membership site is a website that offers exclusive content, products, services, or experiences to its members.

The beauty of it? You charge for access.

Membership sites come in all shapes and sizes, but they are usually built around a specific niche/interest and provide value to their members through regularly updated content and services. Building a membership site for your audience comes with many benefits. Here are my favorites:

Recurring revenue: It’s the magic word for coaches and services businesses. Membership sites generate recurring revenue through monthly or annual subscription fees. This means stable growth for your business (and passive income).
Building a community: Membership sites create a sense of community among members, who share common goals or interests. This allows you to cultivate a network of motivated professionals and entrepreneurs.
Establishing authority and brand loyalty: By consistently providing valuable content and support, you can strengthen your authority in your niche. A membership site helps in building trust and credibility, which are key for retaining members and attracting new clients.
Scalability: Unlike traditional coaching methods that are limited by the coach's time and availability, a membership site can serve an unlimited number of members without a proportional increase in workload.

You’ll need a platform to launch your new site, so check out my favorites to choose from next.

What Platforms Can I Use to Build a Membership Site?

Hop onto Google and there is seemingly no end to the list of platforms you can use for your membership site.

To make it simple for you, here are my 10 favorites:

Circle: All-around solid platform with features for hosting content, scheduling calls, and managing payments.
Squarespace: Great membership features if your website is already built on Squarespace.
Thinkific: Known more for its course creation features, Thinkific offers great membership site functionality as well.
Kajabi: One of the more robust and expensive on the list, from courses to coaching and managing a community Kajabi can do it all.
Searchie: Searchie is a great all-in-one platform to host content and build a membership site.
Mighty Networks: One of the most popular membership site platforms, MightyNetworks offers a suite of community building and membership site tools.
Kartra: Kartra is a robust option that allows you to build a membership site, landing pages, host content, and more.
Podia: One of the cheaper and simpler platforms on the list, but a great way to test the waters and get started.
MemberVault: Membervault is a solid platform for creators that offers a budget-friendly pricing structure for smaller creators.
New Zenler: One of my favorites for hosting courses, they also have plenty of features for building a great membership site.

This list only scratches the surface, read up on these and get some additional tips in my guide to choosing a membership site platform.

Download a copy of the FREE Checklist now!

Want a handy checklist for all the steps for how to create a membership site?

What Makes a Membership Site Stand Out?

Before we get to those examples to copy – I mean, get inspiration from – what makes a membership site stand out from the rest?

High-quality content: You’ll need lots of high-quality content to engage your members and keep them coming back for more. Check out my tip at the end of this post for a shortcut to filling your site with a steady stream of new content without breaking a sweat (or the bank).
Structure and programming: A haphazard membership site that your customers need to find their way through won’t capture their attention for long. Engage new members with structure and programming to guide them through your site and toward their goals.
Vibrant community: Community is key to the success of your membership site. Encourage your members to introduce themselves, ask questions, and engage. It’s like having a full-time team of people working to build your site without any effort from you!

These are just a few tips to set your membership site up for success. Check out eight examples you can learn from next.

3 Tips to Make Your Membership Site Stand Out

8 Membership Site Examples to Copy And Learn From

There are plenty of fantastic membership sites on the web, but the following eight do an excellent job of demonstrating those factors we just reviewed. I pulled examples across industries and price points to show you how diverse membership sites can be (and give you loads of ideas for your own).

My favorites that we will review are:

CopyBlogger
Better Sheets
Brand.me
Nomadic Matt
Startup Society
Dynamite Circle
CopyHackers
BusinessMadeSimple

Let’s walk through these one by one.

CopyBlogger

CopyBlogger has been an authority on content marketing and copywriting for years, so it’s no wonder that they were able to start a successful academy out of their website. Copyblogger Academy connects content marketers (and hopeful content marketers) in a community complete with courses and monthly meetings.

They charge $99 per quarter or $297 per year for access.

Better Sheets

Better Sheets was started to solve one simple problem: Google Sheets can be hard to use, and most people are just scratching the surface with what it can do. It just goes to show you that no topic is too small for a membership site as long as there is a market of people willing to pay to learn how to solve it.

Like CopyBlogger, Better Sheets offers two pricing options: $9/month or $99/year.

Brand.Me

Brand.Me specializes in helping people build their social media brands whether you’re a coach, chef, or affiliate marketer. You can pay monthly to learn ($39/month) or pay for their services to run your socials for you (starting at $1,000/month).

If you run an agency, this is a great way to balance your offerings with a Done-For-You and Do-It-Yourself model side by side. This allows businesses like Brand.Me to pull in higher-ticket clients for their services while presenting a lower cost (and low-touch) offering to smaller clients.

Nomadic Matt

We’ve had some business-heavy use cases here, but Nomadic Matt is a membership site dedicated to individuals who love traveling. Matt, the founder, built a successful travel website and now sells courses aimed at small bloggers looking to build a following and turn their blogs into a business.

StartupSociety

Starting a new business is incredibly difficult, which is why membership sites like Startup Society are so popular! StartupSociety offers courses, programs, and masterminds on topics ranging from setting up a new business entity, validating a business idea, and successfully launching a new business.

Dynamite Circle

Dynamite Circle deviates from the list a bit in that they don’t have much in the way of courses and content, but they do offer community, regular events, masterminds, and coaching sessions as a scalable offering to entrepreneurs across industries. Like the others on our list, they offer two prices, $197/quarter or $499/year.

You’re probably sensing a theme here on pricing, monthly is a great way to start but many sites appear to benefit from a quarterly and yearly pricing plan.

CopyHackers

Like CopyBlogger, CopyHackers helps marketers and writers improve their skills. CopyHackers focuses on conversion copy and conversion rate optimization (CRO). They offer a bunch of courses and a membership for full access to their content starting at $297/month or $2,997 per year. Just because an offer is lower touch doesn’t mean you can’t charge big prices for it.

BusinessMadeSimple

Like the others on our list, BusinessMadeSimple caters to small businesses looking to grow. From operations to sales and marketing, they offer courses, community, and regular webinars to give members an array of content to learn from. Unlike some of the others on our list, they only offer a yearly plan ($275/year) but they also offer a team plan for mult-login access.

You’ll note the ones listed come in on a wide range of price points, read on as I share a few tips for pricing your membership site next.

How to Price Your Membership Site

Before launching your membership site, you need to have a clear, easy-to-understand pricing strategy - and that’s going to require a bit more than picking a number out of a hat and hoping for the best.

Pricing is part art and part science. It takes practice and experience to get it right. But the following tips will set your site up for success:

Price based on value: Price based on the value you provide rather than just the time involved or content included. Rather than think about the time you invest, think about the impact that you can drive for your clients and what that impact is worth to them.
Make your pricing clear: Avoid complex tiers or options when starting out. Keep it simple with one main offer.
Offer a monthly and annual option: Let members pay monthly or offer a discount for paying annually. This lets you cater to different preferences and commitment levels.
Anchor your pricing thoughtfully: If you have other offers, be intentional about how your membership is positioned alongside those in terms of price.

Check out my complete guide to pricing your membership site for more tips and best practices.

Build Your Membership Site with This Free Checklist

Ready to launch your membership site?

You have the examples, sample prices, and platforms to choose from so now you just need the content to host on it.

That’s where I can help.

I sell courses and content that coaches like you can purchase, tweak, re-brand, and sell in minutes to their audiences. And I have a special gift for you: I created a checklist that will guide you through the steps you need to take to set up a membership site and I’ll throw in a 30% off coupon on your first order from my shop.

There’s nothing in your way from creating a membership site that launches your business well into the six figures.